Podcasts by NBN Seminar
Interviews with Authors about their New Books
Further podcasts by Marshall Poe
Podcast on the topic Philosophie
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Leslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. Brophy, is the first edited collection of schola...
ListenMatt Cook, "Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy" (MIT Press, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat. Yet paradox doesn't require tangibles, like ra...
ListenPhillipa Chong, “Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times” (Princeton UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How does the world of book reviews work? In Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times (Princeton University Press, 2020), Phillipa Chong, assistant professor in sociology at McM...
ListenK. Linder et al., "Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers" (Stylus Publishing, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
If you’re a grad student facing the ugly reality of finding a tenure-track job, you could easily be forgiven for thinking about a career change. However, if you’ve spent the last several years work...
ListenKathryn Conrad on University Press Publishing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As you may know, university presses publish a lot of good books. In fact, they publish thousands of them every year. They are different from most trade books in that most of them are what you might...
ListenJ. Neuhaus, "Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers" (West Virginia UP, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The things that make people academics -- as deep fascination with some arcane subject, often bordering on obsession, and a comfort with the solitude that developing expertise requires -- do not nec...
ListenDiscussion of Massive Online Peer Review and Open Access Publishing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In the information age, knowledge is power. Hence, facilitating the access to knowledge to wider publics empowers citizens and makes societies more democratic. How can publishers and authors contri...
ListenMaria Kronfeldner, "What's Left of Human Nature? A Post-Essentialist, Pluralist, and Interactive Account of a Contested Concept" (MIT Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Much of the debate about the roles of nature vs. nurture in the development of individual people has settled into accepting that it's a bit of both, although what each contributes to a given trait ...
ListenMcKenzie Wark, "General Intellects: Twenty-One Thinkers for the Twenty-First Century" (Verso, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
McKenzie Wark’s new book offers 21 focused studies of thinkers working in a wide range of fields who are worth your attention. The chapters of General Intellects: Twenty-One Thinkers for the Twenty...
ListenSteven Shaviro, “Discognition” (Repeater Books, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Steven Shaviro’s book Discognition (Repeater Books, 2016) opens with a series of questions: What is consciousness? How does subjective experience occur? Which entities are conscious? What is it lik...
ListenYves Citton, “The Ecology of Attention” (Polity Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We are arguably living in the midst of a form of economy where attention has become a key resource and value, labor, class, and currency are being reconfigured as a result. But how is this happenin...
ListenChristian B. Miller, “The Character Gap: How Good Are We?” (Oxford UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Are we good people? Or do we just think we are? In his new book The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (Oxford University Press, 2017), author Christian B. Miller tackles these questions and more, bre...
ListenKate Manne, “Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny” (Oxford UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kate Manne is an assistant professor of philosophy at Cornell University. As a feminist and moral philosopher, Manne examines an idea that has been inadequately addressed in her book Down Girl: The...
ListenDinty W. Moore, “The Story Cure: A Book Doctor’s Pain-Free Guide to Finishing your Novel or Memoir” (Ten Speed Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
If you’ve ever wondered how your favorite writers go about crafting their written works, or if you’ve ever been interested in writing a book yourself, chances are you’ve wandered into a bookstore o...
ListenTheodore Vial, “Modern Religion, Modern Race” (Oxford UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The categories religion and race share a common genealogy. The modern understanding of these terms emerges within the European enlightenment but grasping their gradual production requires us to inv...
ListenJames L. Kugel, “The Great Shift: Encountering God in Biblical Times” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In a career spanning several decades, James L. Kugel has illuminated the Hebrew Bible from the perspectives of both a biblical scholar of enormous skill and eloquence and as an engaged and imaginat...
ListenClayton Childress, “Under the Cover: The Creation, Production, and Reception of a Novel” (Princeton UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How does a book come into being? In Under the Cover: The Creation, Production, and Reception of a Novel (Princeton University Press, 2017), Clayton Childress, Assistant Professor in the Department...
ListenChristopher R. Cotter and David G. Robertson, eds., “After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies” (Routledge, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When undergraduate students look through a course catalog and see the title World Religions they probably have some idea what the course will be about. But why is that? Why do World Religions seem ...
ListenIwan Rhys Morus, ed.,”The Oxford Illustrated History of Science” (Oxford UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What is science? A seemingly profound, yet totally ridiculous question to try and answer. Yet, when Oxford University Press reached out to the brilliant scholar of Victorian science, Iwan Rhys Mor...
ListenRon Edwards, “The Edge of Evolution: Animality, Inhumanity, and Doctor Moreau” (Oxford UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As I was reading Ron Edward’s fascinating and far-reaching new book, The Edge of Evolution: Animality, Inhumanity, and Doctor Moreau (Oxford University Press, 2016), I had a flashback. I must have ...
ListenJon Dean, “Doing Reflexivity: An Introduction” (Policy Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Doing Reflexivity: An Introduction (Policy Press, 2017) by Jon Dean, a senior lecturer in politics and sociology at Sheffield Hallam University, explores and explains reflexivity as one of the esse...
ListenDavid Matthews, “Medievalism: A Critical History” (Boydell and Brewer, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
A revealing exploration of representative modes of medievalism, Medievalism: A Critical History (Boydell & Brewer; hardcover 2015, paperback 2017), by David Matthews, examines the people, instituti...
ListenLee Trepanier, ed. “Why the Humanities Matter Today: In Defense of Liberal Education” (Lexington Books, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Lee Trepanier, Professor of Political Science at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, edited this important analysis of why the humanities matter, especially within higher education. Trepan...
ListenCarrie Jenkins, “What Love is: And What it Could Be” (Basic Books, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Carrie Jenkins‘ new book is a model for what public philosophy can be. Beautifully written, thoughtful, and compellingly and carefully argued, What Love Is: And What it Could Be (Basic Books, 2017)...
ListenMcKenzie Wark, “Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene” (Verso, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
McKenzie Wark’s new book begins and ends with a playful call: “Workings of the world untie! You have a win to world!” Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene (Verso, 2015) creates a conversation...
ListenSimon Critchley, “ABC of Impossibility” (Univocal Publishing, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
From its opening fragment on “Fragments” to its “Possibly dolorous tropical lyrical coda,” Simon Critchley‘s new book is a pleasure to hold in the hand and the mind. ABC of Impossibility (Univocal...
ListenJohn Durham Peters, “The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media” (U of Chicago Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
John Durham Peters‘ wonderful new book is a brilliant and beautifully-written consideration of natural environments as subjects for media studies. Accessible and informative for a broad readership....
ListenEugene Thacker, “Horror of Philosophy” (Zero Book, 2011-2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Eugene Thacker‘s wonderful Horror of Philosophy series includes three books – In the Dust of this Planet (Zero Books, 2011), Starry Speculative Corpse (Zero Books, 2015), and Tentacles Longer than ...
ListenLeonard Cassuto, “The Graduate School Mess: What Caused It and How We Can Fix It” (Harvard UP, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The discontented graduate student is something of a cultural fixture in the U.S. Indeed theirs is a sorry lot. They work very hard, earn very little, and have very poor prospects. Nearly all of the...
ListenCass Sunstein, “Choosing Not to Choose: Understanding the Value of Choice” (Oxford UP, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The political tradition of liberalism tends to associate political liberty with the individual’s freedom of choice. The thought is that political freedom is intrinsically tied to the individual’s a...
ListenNick Sousanis, “Unflattening” (Harvard UP, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Nick Sousanis‘s new book is a must-read for anyone interested in thinking or teaching about the relationships between text, image, visuality, and knowledge. Unflattening (Harvard University Press, ...
ListenNaomi S. Baron, “Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World” (Oxford UP, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Screens are ubiquitous. From the screen on a mobile, to that on a tablet, or laptop, or desktop computer, screens appear all around us, full of content both visual and text. But it is not necessari...
ListenThom van Dooren, “Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction” (Columbia UP, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Thom van Dooren‘s new book is an absolute must-read. (I was going to qualify that with a “…for anyone who…” and realized that it really needs no qualification.) Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Ed...
ListenSteven Shaviro, “The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism” (University of Minnesota Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Steven Shaviro‘s new book is a wonderfully engaging study of speculative realism, new materialism, and the ways in which those fields can speak to and be informed by the philosophy of Alfred North ...
ListenDaniel Cloud, “The Domestication of Language” (Columbia UP, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
One of the most puzzling things about humans is their ability to manipulate symbols and create artifacts. Our nearest relatives in the animal kingdom–apes–have only the rudiments of these abilities...
ListenJohanna Drucker, “Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production” (Harvard University Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Johanna Drucker‘s marvelous new book gives us a language with which to talk about visual epistemology.Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production (Harvard University Press, 2014) simultaneously...
ListenEric Hayot, “The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities” (Columbia University Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
“This is a book that wants you to surpass and destroy it.” Eric Hayot‘s new book has the potential to transform how we teach and practice academic writing, and it invites the kind of reading and e...
ListenEric Hayot, “The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities” (Columbia University Press, 2014) from 2014-11-13T12:28:48
“This is a book that wants you to surpass and destroy it.” Eric Hayot‘s new book has the potential to transform how we teach and practice academic writing, and it invites the kind of reading and e...
ListenEric Hayot, “The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities” (Columbia University Press, 2014) from 2014-11-13T12:28:48
“This is a book that wants you to surpass and destroy it.” Eric Hayot‘s new book has the potential to transform how we teach and practice academic writing, and it invites the kind of reading and e...
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